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What was your first vehicles purchased?

Still remember the $25.00 monthly payments on this $450 vehicle (LMAO), buy here, pay here. My monthly liability insurance cost more than the vehicle. Three days after purchase, leaking transmission fluid; had to keep a case of transmission fluid in the trunk to keep this thing running,
A quart a day--salvaged after replacement of two used transmissions in 4 years.

Quickly learned to never buy anything south of OKC's crosstown expressway.

My second car a 1961 gray volkswagen beetle from private owner in 1970. Great millage & gas saver. Filled the tank with less than $3 dollars. Had a push mower with a more powerful engine--Me.

Started driving at 15; didn't get my drivers license until 19; two weeks after I got my drivers' license--my first ticket.

Those were the days my friend; we'd thought they'd never end...

Come on guys, I know there are some great 1st vehicle memories out there.

Re: What was your first vehicles purchased?

A couple of months before I turned 16 in 1976, I bought a 1970 Mustang.

And here it is:

Lots of good memories and I always kept that car tip-top, but the truthfully it was -- as almost all cars were at that time -- a terrible piece of junk. The brakes went out (completely!) on I-35 heading to Norman and I had to swerve onto the median and spin around a few times to stop. Tons of other harrowing mishaps.

Cars back then broke down all the time and of course, no one had cell phones. So lots of time on the side of the road. And I grew up right off NW 63rd near Meridian and we had a parade of people come to our door to use the phone due to being stranded by their vehicle.

It's shocking to think about how far things have come. Still, I loved that car in a way you always have a special place in your heart for your first love, no matter the realities of the relationship. I often dream I still have it; that I kept it in storage for all this time and I take it out for a drive and feel 16 again.

Re: What was your first vehicles purchased?

My first purchase was a 1950 Oldsmobile and it was fast. I was sixteen years old. What I consider my real first car was a 1963 Plymouth Sport Fury with a 383 high performance engine, a Hurst shifter and four speed transmission. It was fast but had a lousy third gear. I raced with a 65 Pontiac GTO and blew him away in first and second, but when I had to shift to third, he ate my lunch.
C. T.

Re: What was your first vehicles purchased?

1972 Olds Cutlass Supreme - Orange with Black interior and the 350 "Golden Rocket" engine. I bought it in 1984 and it had 89,000 miles on it. I rebuilt the engine with a few performance and shiny parts and had the transmission rebuilt during my ownership. I loved that car, but I sold it in 1991 when I bought my first new vehicle (a 1991 GMC 1500) and have regretted it ever since.

Not the actual vehicle in the picture, but a close approximation. Main difference is that mine had black painted rally wheels, not orange.

Re: What was your first vehicles purchased?

Re: What was your first vehicles purchased?

I had a 1962 Ford Galaxy 500 that I bought for $100 from my paper route money when I was barely 15. It had a circular rust spot on the hood from where the carburetor would backfire and catch on fire, had to jump out with a rag and smother the fire out from time to time.

Then bought a 1963 Mercury Monterrey for $125 that was a tank, it would sit 8 teenagers comfortably. Had the rear window that would roll down and you could sit on the trunk with your legs in the back seat.

Turned 16 and bought a 67 Firebird, yellow with a black vinyl roof for $625 from a used dealer on 15th St in Del City.

Re: What was your first vehicles purchased?

^
My dad had a '65 Galaxy 500. I helped him swap the 360 for a 390 out of a Ford F-100. I wanted that car so bad, but he sold it before I turned 15. I was really, really hoping he'd keep it. He was probably smart to get rid of it before I started driving it.

Re: What was your first vehicles purchased?

My first was a ‘71 Chevy Vega Panel Express. Looked much like the one below. Same color but not as nice. Mine had shiny mag wheels for a while then switched to black Vega GT wheels and it smoked like-a-heck.
My friends nicknamed it the mosquito killer. I could lay down a cloud that would just hang in the street and make folks driving behind me stay way back. When sitting at long red lights, I would sometimes have to shut it off to keep from asphyxiating the other motorists around me from smoke cloud that would form. I had a blast driving it and it made a great weapon in traffic or other areas when needed.

My next ride was a much more civilized ‘71 light green Oldsmobile Cutlass S Holiday coupe with the 350 Rocket and matching Rally II wheels, similar to the photo below. Great car till I totaled it one morning on the way to work.

Re: What was your first vehicles purchased?

1996 Honda Accord. I took it through a tree lined bar ditch 3 months after I got it. I drove it for the next three years with no front fender, rear bumper with the tail lights ducktaped on. The quarter panel looked like I took a sledge hammer to it. She keeled over on the day of my high school graduation.

Re: What was your first vehicles purchased?

First car was a 1965 Plymouth with a slant 6, which I had for a year. The second car, which i bought for $ 1,200.00 was a 1968 Camaro SS 396. Light blue with a white stripe across the front. Got this the day after high school graduation in 1971.

Re: What was your first vehicles purchased?

Originally Posted by rezman

My first was a ‘71 Chevy Vega Panel Express. Looked much like the one below. Same color but not as nice. Mine had shiny mag wheels for a while then switched to black Vega GT wheels and it smoked like-a-heck.
My friends nicknamed it the mosquito killer. I could lay down a cloud that would just hang in the street and make folks driving behind me stay way back. When sitting at long red lights, I would sometimes have to shut it off to keep from asphyxiating the other motorists around me from smoke cloud that would form. I had a blast driving it and it made a great weapon in traffic or other areas when needed.

My next ride was a much more civilized ‘71 light green Oldsmobile Cutlass S Holiday coupe with the 350 Rocket and matching Rally II wheels, similar to the photo below. Great car till I totaled it one morning on the way to work.

My second car was a '71 Vega wagon in that styling in gold metalic. I loved everything about that car except that it was mechanically a POS. I lost my ass on repairs, sold it to some other poor shlub and ended up walking back and forth to work for awhile.

Re: What was your first vehicles purchased?

^^^ I gained a lot of my early mechanical ability on my Vega. I got it as a high school junior in 1980 and held on to it and kept it as a back up driver in case my other vehicles broke down. I had to run non-foulers on the spark plugs so it would run on all fours , but that old thing started every time no matter how long it sat. Somewhere along the line I traded a friend of mine a good running sleeved engine out of a ‘75 Vega for a pack of cigarettes. We swapped out the engines using a long pipe, a piece of chain and two picnic table benches, one on either side of the car. The Vega ran good with no smoke, and I kept it around a couple more years and finally sold it to a guy that had a close twin to it for what I originally paid for it.... $300. That was around ‘91-‘92.

Re: What was your first vehicles purchased?

Mine cracked a piston. I had a shop replace the one piston and then sold it to a guy who just came back from working on the Alaska pipeline, had a pocket full of money and didn't know any more about vegas than I did when I bought mine. I think I sold it for about $900 and owed more than that.

Before I bought my first car though, i inherited an old Fiat rust bucket from my sister. it blew a head gasket literally the first time i drove it and left me stranded across town. I called some friends. We towed it to one of the guys' houses who had a few mechanical skills and parked it under a tree in the back yard. We planned to replace the head gasket but it took awhile to get around to it and after my dad put some pressure on me. When we finally pulled the head, the pistons were rusted into the cylinders and it turned into a full rebuild. We had one adult friend who was a mechanic by trade. He gave us advice, helped us get it started and tuned it after we got it back together.

Then my dad sold it and I still didn't have a car to drive until I bought the '64 Falcon.

Except my dad's car, when he wasn't driving it. It was a '69 suicide door Lincoln in green metallic, similar.

Re: What was your first vehicles purchased?

I listed my first car purchase, but I drove a variety of different cars my parents owned before I was able to buy my own. My dad was always swapping cars with people or taking cars in trade for ?? I have no idea.

(None of the pics below are actual pics of the cars I drove, just good representations of them.)

First car I learned to drive a stick in was a '68 VW Karmann-Ghia. Man, I loved that car. We only had it a few months. I don't know why we got rid of it. It ran fine, but the tires would go low every few days.

First time I ever drove a manual with a column shifter was a '62 Dodge Lancer. That car was a solid tank, but was in really poor shape and the slant-6 ran like crap and smoked. We didn't have it long, got it in the spring and by mid-summer it was gone - good riddance.
*Edit - After chatting/texting with my sister about this thread, she said that the '62 Lancer had a push-button shifter, not column shift. We also had a '78 F-150 that I had forgotten about and THAT was the one with the column shifter. I rarely drove that one so I guess my memory is playing tricks on me. BTW, she had a sweet '68 Cougar in HS that she never let me drive, but she wrecked it before she graduated, so of course I still give her crap over it.

We had a 1975 Ford F-100 Ranger pickup for a while. My dad drove it to work a lot, but I got to tool around in it a bit. It was a great truck. It was stolen out of our driveway one evening and we never recovered it.

I briefly drove a '72 VW bus as well. It was fun and great in the snow. Then I rear-ended a pickup. Let me tell you, there's not much between you and front of that bus. Luckily, I wasn't going too fast (30-ish at impact) and nobody got hurt, but that was the end of that vehicle.

Finally, I drove my mom's '76 Olds Toronado quite a bit prior to getting my own car. This was another tank and had a hood long enough to stretch across time zones. It was a really nice car, had power everything, sunroof, etc., plus a giant 455cu in. engine and was front wheel drive. It was a lot of car, but I enjoyed driving it.

It's been great reading about everybody's cars - it's one of my favorite subjects.

Re: What was your first vehicles purchased?

We had a VW bus too, white over green, but I'm not sure of the year, 68-71 I'd guess. I ran it into a telephone pole and totaled it. It had something to do with the girl in the front seat. In fact, I'm sure it was all her fault.